THE PARTIALLY EMPLOYED LABOR FORCE? AN ANALYSIS OF UBER: THE VOICES OF THE DRIVERS1

Abstract

This paper analyzes the similarities and differences between 1. ridesharing and taxi drivers, and 2. part-time and full-time ridesharing drivers to both better understand the workers of the sharing economy2 and assess the claim that they are “partially employed.” I use survey data collected from over three hundred Uber and Lyft drivers between June 2015 and September 2015 and taxi data from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission between June 2013 and September 2013 to conduct the analyses.3 Findings from this paper include: 1. part-time and full-time ridesharing drivers earn similar amounts per hour while taxi drivers make more than both groups of ridesharing drivers, 2. full-time ridesharing drivers work more per week than taxi drivers, who work more than part-time ridesharing drivers per week and 3. ridesharing drivers’ current occupation and educational levels have a strong effect on the amount of hours driven per week. The general finding of this paper is that ridesharing drivers tend to work as much as their schedules allow, an extension to the claim that ridesharing drivers simply work whenever they want. (Uber, 2016)